


National Pastime

by insominia



Category: Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: Baseball, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 13:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12255534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insominia/pseuds/insominia
Summary: SoSu desperately, desperately wants to play baseball but has no one to share the love with. Enter: the Lone Wanderer, fresh from the capital wasteland, with a fondness for sweet America's pastime.





	National Pastime

**Author's Note:**

> Originally here: https://newfalloutkinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/1168.html?thread=21136#cmt21136

"I just think-" 

"No."

"But-" 

"Leave it."

"...but it's a-"

" _Dammit Sole_!" MacCready snapped, causing more than a few heads to turn in their direction, "please. Please, please, please can we just eat our noodles in peace?" 

Beside him Sole huffed and started poking the noodles around her dish, choosing instead to stare over at the entrance to Diamond City, where she could people watch. Not that there were all that many people to watch. The usual smattering of Diamond City dwellers, guards and one leather-clad woman who looked like a travelling mercenary complete with a dog nipping at her heels, chatting away to one of the traders. 

Sole was silent for just a moment before she said again, "look I just miss-" 

"Why do we even come here if all you're going to do is complain about the lack of baseball?" MacCready demanded, but from the other side of Sole, Nick Valentine gave a conspicuous cough. "Oh yeah...uh...present company accepted." 

"Maybe if you'd seen this place before the war you'd understand," Sole gushed, and MacCready sighed, realising he'd been beaten, and she was going to talk regardless, "it was incredible. The stadium all lit up at night. The fans cheering...y'know we used to call 'the wall' the green monster?" 

"You might have mentioned that a few times." 

Sole sighed, heavily, "y'know there's not much I miss about life before the war, but baseball..." she sighed again and found she had little appetite for noodles. 

Beside her MacCready was muttering under his breath, "all the water you could drink, clean food, safety, a roof without holes but no no, it's a game of balls and sticks that you miss..." 

"What about you, Nick?" Sole asked, suddenly, "do you remember baseball?" 

Nick shook his head, unwilling to be drawn, again into this type of conversation, which usually happened every time Sole was in Diamond City and had done since she had first stepped foot in it. "Nope. Sorry kid, old Nick wasn't a fan." 

Sole stared at him for a moment, "really? He wasn't a fan?" 

"He had better things to do...like trying to stop gang warfare," Nick shrugged. As it happened the previous Nick Valentine had been a massive fan of baseball and felt at home at what was then Fenway Park, but current Nick had headaches enough to deal with without letting that little tidbit get out. "How long are you stopping for anyway?" he asked, smoothly, and like that the conversation was changed, and the trio chatted about other things.

That was until MacCready looked up and surprised them all by calling, "hey! Mungo! Don't take another step or we'll blow your fucking head off!" though he had the decency to wince at the swear. 

Sole practically choked on her noodles, coughing out a scandalised, " _MacCready_!" while Nick slammed down his beer and snapped, "hey now!" 

But the person he had addressed, the leather-clad merc Sole had noticed earlier, had stopped in her steps and stared at MacCready, her bright eyes frowning before she started laughing, "holy shit, you're...you're that dickhead 'mayor'!" 

MacCready almost pouted, "hey now, I was mayor." 

The woman chuckled and pulled up the seat beside MacCready, in time for Takahashi to give his usual greeting. The woman's smile faded into confusion and she stuttered a, "huh?" 

"Just say yes," Sole interjected, quickly, "it's easier all round." 

The woman raised an eyebrow and said, "yes," further confused when the robot pushed a bowl of noodles towards her. "Huh. Nice place you got here."

"Oh I don't live here," MacCready assured her, "we're just passing through." He started with introductions but paused when it came to the woman, "this is...this is...y'know," he looked at her thoughtfully, "I never did catch your name."

She smirked, Sole found she couldn't quite take her eyes off the newcomer; she seemed so incredibly confident. A far cry from Sole's own, stumbled entrance into Diamond City where she had to ask directions to Valentine's at least four times from the same guard. "They just call me the Wanderer."

"You roam around, around, around?" Nick chuckled. 

"They call me Sole," Sole said, extending her hand, for a moment she considered introducing herself as 'Nora' but Nora was gone. Nora belonged to a time of white picket fences, of the American Dream, of Nates and Shauns. Nora had gone into the vault, and come out the sole survivor. The name had stuck. 

"So," the Wanderer said, looking around the place, "I take it this place doesn't see much baseball anymore?" 

MacCready spat out the mouthful of beer he'd just drunk, "oh you are kidding me!" 

Sole's eyes lit up like a vault-tec issued Christmas tree, "you...you know what baseball is?" 

"Course I do...the great national pastime, unquestioningly, inescapably American and all that," the Wanderer replied, lazily sipping the beer Takahashi had extended to her. Sole, who had spent every moment in Diamond City thinking about baseball, found herself momentarily distracted by the drop of beer that remained on the Wanderer's lips as she carried on speaking. "We had old holo-vids of it down in the vault when I was growing up. Used to watch them all the time, we tried to play it sometimes but well...not much room in a vault to play a proper game. We used to swing bats at balls at least. Sometimes we'd even get someone to play shortstop..."

"You know what a shortstop is?!" Sole practically screamed, swiftly overcoming the daze she'd been in just a moment before. 

"Sure. Hey, this guy ever tell you how he used to live next door to the Vault where super mutants came from when he was ten fucking years old and he didn't die?" 

It was a good thing Nick was there, Sole mused long after the occasion had passed, to show interest in the Wanderer and MacCready's stories of the Capital Wasteland, seeing as Sole was preoccupied with other things. Though her thoughts were occasionally interrupted by covert glances over at the other woman, who just looked so damn comfortable. Sole had gone into the Institute guns blazing and come out the other end and doubted she had ever looked as self-assured as this newcomer. 

The evening was starting to draw in before MacCready realised they'd have to cut reminiscing short. "Where we staying tonight, boss?" he asked Sole, who suddenly realised she hadn't given it much thought. 

"Oh uh...I hadn't..." 

"Sounds like you're crashing at mine," Nick suggested, lightly. "Not sure about your friend though." 

The Wanderer waved them off, "Nah don't worry about me, I'll find somewhere. I always do. Good to see you MacCready," she said, tapping his shoulder with genuine warmth, "real glad you're doing well."

"You too," MacCready called as she started to head off. Sole was already off her stool and jogging after her before she really realised what she was doing. 

"Hey-" she called, stopping dead when the Wanderer turned around; how could she look so sure of herself, and why did it make Sole's stomach flip a little to behold it? The other woman arched an eyebrow when Sole failed to actually say anything, "oh yeah...uh...so I was wondering...would you be interested in maybe getting a game together? I mean you're the first person I've met who knows baseball is a sport and not..." she shuddered, "well, you'd be amazed what these people think it is." 

"Well sure," the Wanderer said with a grin, "but I don't think this place will be up to much, I mean...there's a noodle bar on the pitcher's mound," she chuckled. 

Sole's hand reached out and touched the woman's shoulder sharply, "there _is_!" She pulled away quickly, "sorry...like I said you're the first person who gets it."

"If you can think of a place to play a game, I'll play," the Wanderer smiled, her eyes a tad too knowing for Sole's liking as she watched Sole flush under her gaze. 

"I happen to have an island at my disposal."

"That sounds perfect."

MacCready had groaned at the prospect of trekking over to Spectacle Island, a groan which became a cry when Sole told him what they were going for. That said, even he couldn't deny how impressive the pitch looked in the sun when the two women were finished. They'd spent days measuring out the bases and drawing up plans. When they'd finished Sole had sat back on her haunches, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, and grinned, "shame we haven't got a hot dog stand lying about." 

The Wanderer reached down and helped her up, "I was always more of a popcorn fan myself." Sole's stomach gave a flip, though whether it was for her new friend, or just because she remembered popcorn, she couldn't rightly say. 

The teams were made up of curious settlers and those of Sole's band that she all but forced onto the pitch. Both dogs had been shut away after they showed they couldn't be trusted around flying baseballs. 

"Now what the hell you saying about hitting something with this thing?" Hancock asked, examining the baseball bat, holding it as though he were about to take down a raider den, rather than a small pouch of leather. 

Sole massaged her temples, "guys, it's simple. One of you will be the pitcher, then we'll have..."

"Whoever's got the bat, hit the ball and run. Hit the bases on your way around and make it back to where you started before the ball gets there, rest of you catch the ball, yeah?" the Wanderer cut across with a playful smile at Sole. 

"Oh sure, simple. Why didn't you say so in the first place, sweetheart?" Hancock asked Sole, who could only roll her eyes. 

"Let's get them running first," the Wanderer whispered, a little too close to Sole's ear, "then we'll worry about innings eh?" 

But that afternoon Sole found she didn't care about innings, or even keeping score. It was just too much fun. Hancock hit the ball like he wanted to kill someone, Danse hit it with measured skill, MacCready, for all his aim, failed to hit a single pitch and Nick...well Nick shrugged off his trench coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves and hit home run after home run, still managing to hold onto his fedora, his tie streaming out behind him. Not a fan, my arse, Sole thought, wryly. 

When darkness came they switched on the spotlights and Sole stood, her face uplifted but her eyes closed, as she felt the night breeze on her skin and heard the whoosh and crack of a ball being hit and the cheer of the gathered settlers watching. And for that moment she wasn't home, she didn't want to be home, this was enough. 

When she opened her eyes the Wanderer was beside her, watching the players laughing, even Danse managing to seem more sociable. "This was a great idea," she said to Sole, "really great." 

Sole smiled, "thanks. And thanks for y'know...making it possible and everything." 

The Wanderer chuckled and then glanced over her shoulder, "well...looks like Dogmeat made a friend." 

Looking over Sole saw both dogs nuzzling each other playfully, "ha yeah, he's not usually that friendly."

"Oh...I was talking about my dog."

"Oh right..." Sole laughed, "I was talking about mine..." 

There was a wicked gleam in the Wanderer's eye, "we both love baseball, our dogs have the same name, we should see what else we have in common."

And as she leaned in to claim Sole's lips, MacCready kicked a base in frustration; she wasn't even paying attention to the game.


End file.
